There will be a celebration on 16 June in Coventry Cathedral ruins to mark the 40th anniversary of the creation of this statue by Josefina de Vasconcellos in 1977. It depicts a man and woman embracing and was originally entitled Reunion. Josefina said:

“The sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of the War. Europe was in shock, people were stunned. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn’t only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting.”

Later it was renamed Reconciliation upon the request of the Peace Studies Department of the University of Bradford which owns the original. In 1995 (to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II) bronze casts of this sculpture were placed in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and in the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan. An additional cast can be found on the grounds of Stormont Castle in Belfast. To mark the opening of the rebuilt German Reichstag (parliament building) in 1999, another cast was placed as part of the Berlin Wall memorial.

There will be talks from academics about the statue and by people from Northern Ireland about the relation of the statue to the Good Friday agreement. We will also hear from artist John Yeadon who has carried out work which investigates the relationship between Coventry and Dresden.